Viral Hepatitis
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2003. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. May 15, 2003; 9(5): 984-992
Published online May 15, 2003. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v9.i5.984
Mix-infections with different genotypes of HCV and with HCV plus other hepatitis viruses in patients with hepatitis C in China
Yuan-Ding Chen, Ming-Ying Liu, Wen-Lin Yu, Jia-Qi Li, Qin Dai, Zhen-Quan Zhou, Sergio G. Tisminetzky
Yuan-Ding Chen, Ming-Ying Liu, Jia-Qi Li, Qin Dai, Key Laboratory, Institute of Medical Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Kunming 650118, Yunnan Province, China
Wen-Lin Yu, Zhen-Quan Zhou, Kunming Hospital for Infectious Diseases, Kunming 650041, Yunnan Province, China
Sergio G. Tisminetzky, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Trieste 34012, Italy
Author contributions: All authors contributed equally to the work.
Supported by the research grants from International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) Collaborative Research Program, CRP/CHN96-05 and from China Yunnan Provincial Science & Technology Commission International Collaborative Research Program, No. 97C009
Correspondence to: Dr. Yuan-Ding Chen, The Key laboratory, Institute of Medical Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, 379 Jiaoling Road, Kunming 650118, Yunnan Province, China. chenyd@km169.net
Telephone: +86-871-8334689 Fax: +86-871-8334483
Received: January 14, 2002
Revised: April 23, 2002
Accepted: December 22, 2002
Published online: May 15, 2003
Abstract

AIM: Clinical therapy and prognosis in HCV infections are not good, and mix-infections with different HCV genotypes or quasispecies and mix-infections with HCV plus other hepatitis viruses are important concerns worldwide. The present report describes the sequence diversity and genotying of the 5’NCR of HCV isolates from hepatitis patients mix-infected with different HCV genotypes or variants, and the conditions of mix-infections with HCV plus other hepatitis viruses, providing important diagnostic and prognostic information for more effective treatment of HCV infections.

METHODS: The 5’ non-coding region (5’NCR) of HCV was isolated from the patients sera and sequenced, and sequence variability and genotypes of HCV were defined by nucleotide sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis, and the patients mix-infected with HCV plus other hepatitis viruses were analyzed. The conditions and clinical significance of mix-infections with HCV plus other hepatitis viruses were further studied.

RESULTS: Twenty-four out of 43 patients with chronic hepatitis C were defined as mix-infected with different genotypes of HCV. Among these 24 patients, 9 were mix-infected with genotype 1 and 3, 7 with different variants of genotype 1, 2 with different variants of genotype 2, 6 with different variants of genotype 3. No patients were found mix-infected with genotype 1 and 2 or with genotype 2 and 3. The clinical virological analysis of 60 patients mix-infected with HCV plus other hepatitis viruses showed that 45.0% of the patients were mix-infected with HCV plus HAV, 61.7% with HCV plus HBV, 6.7% with HCV plus HDV/HBV, 8.4% with HCV plus HEV, 3.3% with HCV plus HGV. Infections with HCV plus other hepatitis viruses may exacerbate the pathological lesion of the liver.

CONCLUSION: The findings in the present study imply that mix-infections with different HCV genotypes and mix-infections with HCV plus other hepatitis viruses were relatively high in Yunnan, China, providing important diagnostic and prognostic information for more effective treatment of HCV infections.

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